We spoke with Principal Greg Betti of Stamford Elementary School in Vermont as part of our fireside chat series. In our interview, Principal Betti shares his thoughts on how he discovered the right student information system for his elementary school. The school began using QuickSchools in September 2013 and has 65 students in grades K-8.
Before using QuickSchools, Principal Betti’s administration was trying to “join the technology age without a grade book and recordkeeping and they were having a hard time.” They found the costs of the programs that they researched to be exorbitant and they needed to “simplify the process and find something that was better and more reasonable cost.” After trying another student information system for over four months, the “teachers were nervous and they didn’t like the gradebook.” “We decided to try QuickSchools because it seemed like it would be easier to set up and then we could go from there.”
The QuickSchools help chat box was the main selling point for Principal Betti and his staff. “Every time we needed information, it was there, readily available, knowledgeable, and we got questions answered. Within two weeks, we were set up and ready to roll out the program.” Principal Betti’s advice for schools that are considering purchasing an online student information system would be to “do homework and find out what’s offered.”
Part of the selling point for Principal Betti was the QuickSchools report card feature. The Stamford school board wanted to differentiate report cards for K-4 and grades 5-8. QuickSchools worked directly with the school to design a customized report card for the upper grades.
Another benefit of QuickSchools for Principal Betti is the fees don’t go up. There also has been an increased level of satisfaction among teachers and parents with QuickSchools. Principal Betti noted that both constituencies have achieved high levels of comfort with the product in a short period of time.
Finally, Principal Betti stated that he expects to continue growing and partnering with QuickSchools:
“We are slowly expanding our use of QuickSchools without being forced to; we’re just using it more and more. Our comfort level is not going down, it’s going up. We expand because we’re comfortable and that’s a win-win situation for our small elementary school.”
Thank you to Principal Betti for participating in our fireside chat.